Congratulations on discovering Scalar, the next generation in media-rich, scholarly electronic publishing!
If you just want to create a Scalar project, the easiest route is to work from our servers. You can register and learn more at http://scalar.usc.edu/scalar. Using the version of Scalar that is hosted on our servers guarantees that you are working on the most up-to-date version of the software. During our beta phase, updates will continue to happen with some frequency as features are added, user feedback is incorporated and Scalar continues to broaden the horizons of electronic publishing. If you are technically inclined and decide to host your own version of Scalar, you’re free to customize and modify it in any way, but it’s up to you to download, install and troubleshoot updates as they become available.
We are also very grateful for all feedback based on your experiences using Scalar. We are especially interested to know where and how you are using it, innovative or unexpected uses of Scalar, requests for features, opportunities for future development, potential press, archive or scholarly society partnerships, as well as reports on any bugs or difficulties you may experience. Learn more at http://scalar.usc.edu/scalar.
To install Scalar on your own server, you can download the most recent build from GitHub. Or, if you are concerned about downloading from the "live" GitHub codebase, we periodically create a GitHub Release. The code kept in a release can be assumed to be tested in both development and live environments (e.g., scalar.usc.edu). For help installing Scalar, see either INSTALL.txt or UPDATE.txt in the project root folder.
As we update the software, we periodically make changes to Scalar's config files or database structure. If you have installed Scalar on your own server and are planning to update from GitHub, you'll likely need to make updates to your local config files or database. We're keeping track of the config changes on the wiki: https://github.com/anvc/scalar/wiki/Changes-to-config-files-over-time.